HOME RADIO

Evening Post, Volume CIII, Issue 129, 3 June 1922, Page 9

HOME RADIO

GROWTH OF WIRELESS

A POWER IN THE LAND

feoME RECfcNT DEVELOPMENTS.

(For The Post.)

In one respect, New Zealand ig behind the times. It is scarcely beginning to suspect that "wireless" has arrived.. There are, it is true, quite a large number of amateur stations scattered through the country, but apart from their owners and their friends, and a small community of 'experts, the effects of "radio" are scarcely being felt,here. It is therefore something of a surprise to realise, ft-cm a glance at ttie specialist literature on. the subject,' what a great]part the new art already plays in,the lives of people in other parts of the world, and especially in the United States, the; home of domestic wireless. : ' , ' , The enormous popular development of wireless dates from ;the introduction of the thermionic -valve,' an appliance which makes it just as easy to telephone by wireless as to telegraph. There is not, after all, much pleasure to be got from listening'to the buzzing of the Morse code; but the apparatus that hears the telegraphic dots and dashes can hear just as well the words and music of the wireless telephone. Moreover, a complete wireless receiving station can be equipped in the United States for anything from £5 to £6 upwards; and "the air is full of music." /-. WHAT AMERICANS HEAE. Not only do the business corporations which supply wireless apparatus keep uj> interest in the hobby by "broadcasting' entertaining matter; the country is dotted with transmitting stations, official and unofficial. As a writer in Radio News says:—"A list of all that can be heard with a radio receiver anywhere within three hundred miles of Greater New York would fill a book. At any hour of the day or night, with any type of apparatus adjustable to receive waves of any length, the listener will hear something of interest. Scores of ships may be heard exchanging messages with shore stations or with each other in the International Morse code. Many of them have radio telephones, and conversations may be heard in many different languages. Government stations send out weather forecasts; A hydrographic information, and time signals. Amateurs signal in Morse code, converse over vradio telephones, or amuse, the world by playing jaiz. At times there is so much goin" on that it is difficult to tune out all but the station that the hearer wishes to receive, though the selectivity of modern -tuning apparatus is marvellous. By merely listening! in, and writing down the adjustment of the receiving apparatus at the time when it brings in each station, ' anyone may quickly develop a list of broadcasts and add to it each day as new and interestin" stations are discovered. Anywhere in°the United States, with an up-to : date long-wave receiver, it is possible to get the news broadcasted (in Morse code) by high-powered stations in the British Isles.^Germany, France, Italy, Russia,, Mexico, West Indies, South America, and Hawaii. . . .Radio Central, the new commercial station of the Radio Corporation of America, at Lone I»1 n a ™' hasten ■■heard in New Zealand, 10,000' miles away." ; MANY SENDING STATIONS. The various stations which give programmes intended for general consumption by the quarter million or so amateur listening, stations probably number close upon a hundred. They have ranges for. telegraphic work running into thousands of miles, and for telephoning from-50 to 600 miles. They provide, at stated times and at stated wave-lengths,! matter 'which, may be classified under the,following heads: Official news, weather reports, time-signals, stock and produce market reports, press news, sporting* results; .concerts, stories, lectures, and addresses by notable people, and Sermons. The ability of the domestic operator to pick up as much of this as, ho wishes and to extend his hearing to the four quarters of the world (from which the voice of the publicist is always at his service) is practically limited only by the depth of his purse. For the modest taste of the average amateur; the equipment costs little, and the cost of upkeep and operation is negligible. It is probably ,far cheaper in many places to install wireless and listen to broadcasted music than to buy a good , gramophone and stock one's own records. _ ■ i It is little wonder, with such inducements, to buy, that the purchasers have latterly heavily defeated the manufacturers, whose output .has „ .lagged far behind orders. ' INFLUENCE IN NATIONAL LIFE. There are some ways in which already the widespread use of wireless has become a factor in national affairs. Every day, an "amateur radio _ broadcast" is issued from Washington in Morse code, at a slow rate of signalling and very clearly. The message is brief and tol the'point, and it is intended to keep the radio public'in touch with the Government, so that there will be open, when it is required, a prompt and efficient path of conveying to the whole nation, at a single stroke, a warning or other important piece of news or advice. Only: this week another aspect of this sort of influence was indicated, in the fact,that speeches made at the dedication of the Lincoln Memorial were broadcasted to the nation by wireless telephone. POSITION IN NEW ZEALAND. Within New Zealand, ■• the growth of wireless has been very slow. Officially extinguished during the war, the amateur has recently been permitted to begin receiving, again, .but transmitting ,1i«Jtli«l life JtU't-:, TliCl'fi tire « large auabsE of. aaurteur_ wcejjjjwr iUtiojuj.

and other owners are einfihusiastic; but their entertainment is practically restricted,: for the mostipart, to ''listen-ing-in" to the commercial traffic, mostly, between ships and between ships and shore. Thoso who can .afford them, install valves and the.ne<!easary adjuncts, for long-wave reception, a^nd they are" able to hear European ami' -American stations of high power, .with clearness that gives them gratification, 'though it does 'hot greatly thrill, after', the first revelation, the inexpert listener. The true amateur' lust for radio, "awaits a supoly of telephonic transmission. At present there are two small ■ telephone stations—one, belonging .to a. \ skilled amateur experimenter in Duneolin and the other to a business firm iii Wei-' lington. The.Dunedin station, though.it works with little, power, hae been heard in Wellington, and even further north,' but the Wellington station is qulit© a modest affair yet, and'does not pretend to be audible for more than a few miles.. But range of transmission is,not entirely a matter of the, power, put in. months ago an. American amateur station using SO watts of current-—the amount consumed by a 50 candle-power lamp, or one-twentieth as much as heats an electric iron—was heard in Scotland. .''' ■ ' ■ ' '.. \